BROWNWOOD, Texas - The Howard Payne University baseball team could not overcome an early Concordia Texas advantage and fell 14-8 in the conference series opener Friday afternoon at Don Shepard Park.

Concordia jumped out to an early 8-0 lead after scoring two in the first and six in the second. Howard Payne was able to pull within three, 11-8, at the end of a three-run bottom of the seventh. Concordia scored three in the top of the ninth to claim the game 14-8.

The Yellow Jackets started to chip away at the 8-0 CTX lead in the bottom of the second scoring three. Jay Holland singled up the middle to score Jacob Salazar, Michael Nowak walked with the bases loaded to bring home Benjamin Lewis, then Cliff Lunceford had a sac fly to score David Groves.

In the fifth, Salazar singled to center field to plate Noah Payne.and later Lewis singled to right field to bring home Salazar, 9-5 CTX.

After a two run top of the seventh for CTX, the Jackets answered plating three runs. Brett Quackenbush singled to right field to score Joshua Gerig, then Groves singled to right field scoring Salazar and Quackenbush.

Matthew Parks recorded the loss (4-2) in the start for Howard Payne going allowing nine runs on ten hits in four innings. Jonathan George saw 2.2 innings of solid work allowing two runs on two hits and striking out four. Wesley Smith worked .1 of an inning striking out one. Ethan Cerna faced two batters in the seventh and Chad Anders finished out the final two frames striking out three.

Jacob Salazar led the Jackets with a 3-for-4 outing at the plate and David Groves followed going 2-for-3 in the game.

Howard Payne stands at 14-8 overall and 7-3 in American Southwest Conference action. Concordia is now 16-11 overall and 8-5 in league play. The two teams will have a double header on Saturday starting at 1:00 pm to decide the series.